ANN ARBOR, Mich., October 22, 2007 - ProQuest has just launched the second phase of their British Periodicals digital collection, British Periodicals Collection II, which will consist of over 300 journals and 3 million pages when complete. British Periodicals Collection I was originally published in 2006, and both collections combined now span nearly 2 million pages.

"By providing digital access, ProQuest has opened up these important collections to a much wider audience, supporting the needs of researchers within multiple disciplines - from history, literature, music, art, architecture and archaeology to popular science, Celtic folklore and religion," said Mary Sauer-Games, Vice President of ProQuest's Chadwyck-Healey publishing.  "British Periodicals will offer scholars a new way of studying, accessing, and understanding both the most influential writings and the less well-known materials that create a record of daily life during a tremendously important historical period."

British Periodicals Collection II incorporates rare periodicals from the 17th through the 20th centuries, drawn from the well-known UMI microfilm collections English Literary Periodicals and British Periodicals in the Creative Arts. British Periodicals will be essential to libraries, academic departments and educational institutions with an interest in documenting the literary habits and social history of Britons from all classes and their influence on the wider world over 250 years.

Both British Periodicals collections are accessible from a single stand-alone interface, or they can be accessed via ProQuest's Periodicals Archive Online interface, where they are fully cross-searchable with other Periodicals Archive Online content in institutions with access to both resources. Institutions with access to ProQuest's Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals can cross-search Wellesley indexing with British Periodicals full-text using the stand-alone interface. The Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals includes more than 90,000 records from 45 key British periodicals; all included in full text within both British Periodicals collections. Indexed by scholars, this source offers information on author attributions for articles that were originally published anonymously or pseudonymously.

All content in these two collections is available in full-page facsimile images with searchable full text. Users can instantly filter results down to article type and download articles in either PDF or TIFF. Each facsimile page is available in both a high resolution bi-tonal version, for ease of on-screen reading, and a high resolution grayscale version, providing scholars with an authentic and detailed record of the printed source.

About ProQuest
ProQuest creates specialized information resources and technologies that propel successful research, discovery, and lifelong learning. A global leader in serving libraries of all types, ProQuest offers the expertise of such respected brands as Chadwyck-Healey™, UMI®, SIRS®, and eLibrary®. With Serials Solutions®, Ulrich's™, RefWorks®, COS™, Dialog® and now Bowker® part of the ProQuest brand family, the company supports the breadth of the information community with innovative discovery solutions that power the business of books and the best in research experience.

More than a content provider or aggregator, ProQuest is an information partner, creating indispensable research solutions that connect people and information. Through innovative, user-centered discovery technology, ProQuest offers billions of pages of global content that includes historical newspapers, dissertations, and uniquely relevant resources for researchers of any age and sophistication—including content not likely to be digitized by others. Inspired by its customers and their end users, ProQuest is working toward a future that blends information accessibility with community to further enhance learning and encourage lifelong enrichment.

For more information, visit www.proquest.com or the ProQuest parent company website, www.cig.com.